Pages keeps falling over

[polyphenol]

As a relative newcomer to Pages (on Ventura and now Sonoma), I realise that there is much to learn. But the problem I'm having is that Pages just quits - quite regularly.

My perception is that it tends to occur when I scroll, mostly with mouse wheel, through a document. I'm not sure if direction of scroll matters - definitely scrolling down. Also not sure if it only happens shortly after updating something - when Pages might still be repaginating and working through consequences of changes.

Pages simply disappears. Then, mostly, pops up a failure window and asks if I wish to re-open the document.

I do lose my most recent changes but I am pretty good at positively saving so it isn't having a major impact. It is far more an annoyance and time-waster than a major issue.

It appears exactly the same on Mac mini and MBP - both M1.

My document does have lots of internal and external links, ToC and multiple styles.

 

[TriciaMacMillan]

Sounds like a bug to me, and I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do but keep sending the error reports to Apple and hope for a fix. However, my impression is that Apple has lost interest in Pages & Co., as I‘m not aware of any major update since long.

 

[polyphenol]

Sounds like a bug to me, and I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do but keep sending the error reports to Apple and hope for a fix. However, my impression is that Apple has lost interest in Pages & Co., as I‘m not aware of any major update since long.

Which is a shame as there are aspects which I much prefer to Word. (And it was problems with Word that enticed me to bother with Pages!)

After using Word since Word for Mac OS thirty or so years ago, it is hard to switch to anything else!

 

[funwithstuff]

It's possible there's something weird with your document, especially possible if it's been translated from Word and it's relatively complex. Definitely worth reporting. FWIW, I do not have stability issues with Pages.

 

[polyphenol]

It's possible there's something weird with your document, especially possible if it's been translated from Word and it's relatively complex. Definitely worth reporting. FWIW, I do not have stability issues with Pages.

Thank you.

I did play around with conversion but it was obvious from the start that would have been a bad decision. And I knew I had made some questionable decisions in the creation of the Word document.

The document is entirely created from scratch within Pages and only plain text has been copied and pasted into it.

I don't think I have used any odd features.

 

[kirbyrun]

Please report this bug to Apple. In my experience, the Pages team is VERY responsive. I’ve filed a ton of bugs with them and have almost always gotten back a response with a request for more information. I can only think of one time that they didn’t actually fix my issue…and in all fairness, that was more a feature request than a bug.

 

[polyphenol]

Please report this bug to Apple. In my experience, the Pages team is VERY responsive. I’ve filed a ton of bugs with them and have almost always gotten back a response with a request for more information. I can only think of one time that they didn’t actually fix my issue…and in all fairness, that was more a feature request than a bug.

Have reported. I was going to anyway but appreciate the encouragement to do so.

 

[TriciaMacMillan]

Please keep us updated. I’m really curious about the outcome!

 

[Slartibart]

Can you kinfly provide some more info? Pages version? Kind of dokument (e.g. nummer of pages, pictures, which fonts)? What hardware, particularly what mouse model? Does the problem persist when you open the same document as a different user? Does the problem persist after starting your Mac in safe mode?

 

[polyphenol]

Can you kinfly provide some more info? Pages version? Kind of dokument (e.g. nummer of pages, pictures, which fonts)? What hardware, particularly what mouse model? Does the problem persist when you open the same document as a different user? Does the problem persist after starting your Mac in safe mode?

This is a share for the document:

helvella - World Desiccated Thyroid Products.pages

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

89 pages, A5. No pictures (except as emoji and one on front page, and some small ones used as bullets). Mostly Avenir, Avenir Next Condensed. A few of tricksie Unicode combined characters.

Hardware - Mac mini and MBP - both M1, both Sonoma.

I've never used any other user on either machine! Nor have I ever used safe mode.

 

[Slartibart]

I've never used any other user on either machine! Nor have I ever used safe mode.

if you create and login as a new user, open this document and the problem is gone, something particular - as in e.g. some software - to your current user is the culprit.
Starting in safe mode as your current user will allow to do a similar check (it will disable all “global” running 3rd party extension, which might effect a newly created user account too).
What mouse model are you using?

 

[polyphenol]

if you create and login as a new user, open this document and the problem is gone, something particular - as in e.g. some software - to your current user is the culprit.
Starting in safe mode as your current user will allow to do a similar check (it will disable all “global” running 3rd party extension, which might effect a newly created user account too).
What mouse model are you using?

Logitech Pebble M350.

 

[Slartibart]

Logitech Pebble M350.

you use any Logitech software? E.g. Logitech Options? if yes, deinstall it. Moving it to the trash is not sufficient - use the deinstaller Logitech provides. restart then check.

 

[polyphenol]

you use any Logitech software? E.g. Logitech Options? if yes, deinstall it. Moving it to the trash is not sufficient - use the deinstaller Logitech provides. restart then check.

No! I only let macOS attach it - and that is all I need or want.

 

[headlessmike]

This is a share for the document:

helvella - World Desiccated Thyroid Products.pages

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

89 pages, A5. No pictures (except as emoji and one on front page, and some small ones used as bullets). Mostly Avenir, Avenir Next Condensed. A few of tricksie Unicode combined characters.

Hardware - Mac mini and MBP - both M1, both Sonoma.

I've never used any other user on either machine! Nor have I ever used safe mode.

I just tried opening your document on my M1 mini running Sonoma and the latest Pages. It handled it just fine. No crashes or any weird behavior.

 

[polyphenol]

I just tried opening your document on my M1 mini running Sonoma and the latest Pages. It handled it just fine. No crashes or any weird behavior.

Thank you for trying.

Most of the time, it is fine for me too!. Just makes me think all is well - then suddenly Pages disappears.

 

[Slartibart]

you ever looked in the Pages crash.log via macOS console to try to identify what’s going on?

 

[FNH15]

Been using Pages since nearly the beginning (iWork '06 if memory serves). Never, ever had an issue with documents - and I've opened up some pretty complex Word docs that Word itself couldn't properly parse. Your document even opened fine on my 2010 MacBook Pro running a fairly ancient version of Pages on 10.13.

Given that, I noticed the document uses some external/non-Apple shipping fonts. Have you tried going into Font Book and verifying your fonts database? I wonder if the reason it's opening fine on other machines is that they lack the "STIXTwoMath-Regular" font.

 

[polyphenol]

you ever looked in the Pages crash.log via macOS console to try to identify what’s going on?

No - I've never dived that far.

I went in and found crash reports - but only a single item there - WallpaperVideoExtension.

Elsewhere, loads like this:

Failed to set up CFPasteboardRef 'Apple CFPasteboard general'. Error: <dictionary: 0x1e62e9d30> { count = 1, transaction: 0, voucher = 0x0, contents =
"XPCErrorDescription" => <string: 0x1e62e9ec8> { length = 18, contents = "Connection invalid" }
}

I'm lost!

 

[polyphenol]

Been using Pages since nearly the beginning (iWork '06 if memory serves). Never, ever had an issue with documents - and I've opened up some pretty complex Word docs that Word itself couldn't properly parse. Your document even opened fine on my 2010 MacBook Pro running a fairly ancient version of Pages on 10.13.

Given that, I noticed the document uses some external/non-Apple shipping fonts. Have you tried going into Font Book and verifying your fonts database? I wonder if the reason it's opening fine on other machines is that they lack the "STIXTwoMath-Regular" font.

I didn't so much consciously use that font - as it was what I found when looking for a Unicode combining circle. Just used Character Viewer to find something and didn't pay any attention to the actual font.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Thank you.

I did play around with conversion but it was obvious from the start that would have been a bad decision. And I knew I had made some questionable decisions in the creation of the Word document.

The document is entirely created from scratch within Pages and only plain text has been copied and pasted into it.

I don't think I have used any odd features.

I have had no stability issues with Pages. 2011 MBP, then 2016 MBP 16 GB RAM and now M2 MBP with 96 GB RAM. But I have no Word corruptions since I have hated therefore avoided Word for decades once MS made bloatware out of it. If I need data from a Word document I try to copy/paste straight text.

When an anomaly is repeatedly happening it usually presents when the Mac or app is slowed; slower operation seems to give problems much more likelihood of occurring. E.g. paging to disk seems to invite problems. So close other apps (esp. the browser!), check RAM usage and make sure the boot drive is less than 80% full.

 

[polyphenol]

I have had no stability issues with Pages. 2011 MBP, then 2016 MBP 16 GB RAM and now M2 MBP with 96 GB RAM. But I have no Word corruptions since I have hated therefore avoided Word for decades once MS made bloatware out of it. If I need data from a Word document I try to copy/paste straight text.

When an anomaly is repeatedly happening it usually presents when the Mac or app is slowed; slower operation seems to give problems much more likelihood of occurring. E.g. paging to disk seems to invite problems. So close other apps (esp. the browser!), check RAM usage and make sure the boot drive is less than 80% full.

The most annoying issue with Word is exporting as a PDF.

My biggest and most important document simply fails to do so - no matter what I try, it fails. So I copy it to Windows and do it there. Which is very tedious as I usually don't have Windows running - so have to start up that machine and get through all the updates...

I only have 8GB or 16GB - which seems enough for everything else I do!

 

[FNH15]

The most annoying issue with Word is exporting as a PDF.

My biggest and most important document simply fails to do so - no matter what I try, it fails. So I copy it to Windows and do it there. Which is very tedious as I usually don't have Windows running - so have to start up that machine and get through all the updates...

I only have 8GB or 16GB - which seems enough for everything else I do!

Couldn’t you just print to PDF and use the built-in PDF compositor? That’s what I do when I need to go from Office -> PDF.

 

[polyphenol]

Couldn’t you just print to PDF and use the built-in PDF compositor? That’s what I do when I need to go from Office -> PDF.

Yes - I can print to PDF. But then I don't get a functioning Table of Contents! Nor do any internal links work.

With more than 500 pages, that is a major issue!

 

[polyphenol]

Please report this bug to Apple. In my experience, the Pages team is VERY responsive. I’ve filed a ton of bugs with them and have almost always gotten back a response with a request for more information. I can only think of one time that they didn’t actually fix my issue…and in all fairness, that was more a feature request than a bug.

iWorks support have responded and asked if they can get in touch for more information. Of course I said they could.